08/17/2021
Wow, woke up at 11:30 after 5.5 hours of sleep.
Wow, the feeling of having slept well, even if it was only five and a half hours, is great! What a difference a nice duvet makes. Incredible, the white shirts that we had left in Win’s care last night, still dirty, were not only returned to us this morning clean, but actually ironed. After a hearty breakfast brunch until 2 p.m., which the two of them had lovingly prepared, we wanted to do a little thank you tour for the people who helped us get here from Magdeburg. The piano was still on the trailer because we didn’t have the spare wheel for the trailer yet and we didn’t have a spare coat for the other side either.
So we drove the car first to the person who had sponsored the trailer. We stopped two hundred meters from the house, climbed onto the trailer to the piano and rolled the rest of the way to the family who was already waiting for us. It was a surprise in two ways, because last year they wanted to come to our concert in the Schelfkirche, which unfortunately had to be cancelled due to corona. So they were all the more delighted about our little concert!
4:00 PM: Minnesingers in the 21st century without singing
The next thank you should go to Remo, who had a very special request that can only be described as sweet and touching. We have played Armor many times before. This time it should be in a completely new way. Remo has been in love with an employee at NETTO in Wittenberge for some time, but has not yet had the courage to speak to her. Now we should help to change that. The plan was to lure her outside, where we would stand with the piano, play and give Remo an emotional and musical helping hand. Unfortunately, it turned out that the good woman, whose name he unfortunately does not yet know, was on vacation. Nevertheless, we stood in the parking lot in front of the store and packaged Remo’s message of love in a video that he can then send to her, along with a CD from us and two free tickets. We wish him all the best and much success!
Finally a replacement coat, but no success in getting us on board
Remo drove us to the bike shops in this town and at the second one we finally got lucky and they had the tires for the bikes we needed for the repair. We bought all of them straight away (two). By now it was clear that Anna would be there with the spare bike at around 8 p.m. and we still had some time. Win had organized a meeting at the town hall, which we drove to. Unfortunately it started to rain at exactly that time and the mayor was too busy to come out. We, on the other hand, didn’t feel like lugging the piano to the town hall without a trolley and carrying straps, so we drove on to the harbor empty-handed to try our luck at getting a ride on the water.
There was no one to be found in the entire harbor and after Win had tried to address our concerns by phone, it was clear that our request was hopeless. Actually, it was also his idea to hold a concert on the newly completed waterfront promenade, so to speak, before it was opened. But it was still very wet and the cold and the wind and our exhaustion kept our enthusiasm for this idea in check.
19:00: Waiting for Anna and successful repair
So we drove back to Win and Lin’s house to wait for Anna. We wouldn’t be able to get any further today. The feeling was very sobering. So we only had one choice. Instead of taking the boat, we had the greatest driver of all time, Remo, drive us another forty kilometers. He even fought his employer to get another day off for this.
Meanwhile, Win and Lin had already prepared a great dinner, which, in between other exciting life experiences, made the wait for Anna much easier. She arrived shortly before nine and after a cup of tea, Anna and I did teamwork and swapped the bike, the tire and tried to repair the left rear light, which unfortunately we failed at. Nevertheless, everything was ready to go by 11 p.m. and Anna drove straight back home. Our eyes closed immediately afterwards and I was so tired that I couldn’t update the blog. Tomorrow we were supposed to set off early again to meet a reporter from the FAZ near Dömitz. Pray that this will be the last time we need a car to get around and that we can only travel the rest of the way by TASTDEM.
Next entry: “From Dömitz to Lüneburg” or “Nettle smoothie instead of beer and schnapps”
Back to TASTDEM-Tour overview